Massachusetts governor says deals have been reached to keep some threatened hospitals open

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday that deals have been reached in principle to transition operations at four hospitals operated by Steward Health Care to new operators.

The Healey administration will take control of a fifth hospital through eminent domain to help transition it to a new owner. The Dallas-based company announced its bankruptcy May 6.

Two other Steward-operated hospitals are still set to close by the end of the month.

New operators have been found for Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, the Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill, and Morton Hospital in Taunton, Healey said.

The state will take over control of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston to help keep the hospital open until the transition to a new owner is complete, Healey said.

“Today I’m pleased to say we’re closing the book on Steward once and for all in Massachusetts,” Healey said at a news conference Friday. “Good riddance and good bye.”

A spokesperson for Steward Health Care declined comment.

If the deals are finalized, Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator for both campuses of Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen. Lifespan would assume operations of Morton and Saint Anne’s, and Boston Medical Center would take over Good Samaritan, as well as St. Elizabeth’s after the taking process is complete, Healey said.

Healey said she had to invoke the eminent domain process to secure the future of St. Elizabeth’s after the lender rebuffed initial offers from the state.

She said she state was sending a letter to the lender, Apollo Global Management, on Friday for $4.5 million which she described as the “appropriate and fair market value” of the property.

A spokesperson for Apollo declined comment.

The actions do not impact the planned closings of Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Healey said eminent domain wasn’t a practical option in the case of Carney and Nashoba because there were no qualified operators.

“The state cannot run a hospital,” Healey said. “Hospital systems have to run hospitals.”

She also said initially she wasn’t sure that the state was going to be able to get to a place where most of the Steward-operated hospitals are on track to be saved.

Steward announced its bankruptcy May 6 and two days later said it planned to sell off the 30 hospitals it operates nationwide

A bankruptcy judge last month allowed Steward’s decision to close two Massachusetts hospitals. Steward announced July 26 its plan to close the hospitals — Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley — on or around Aug. 31 because it had received no qualified bids for either facility.

Massachusetts has also agreed to provide about $30 million to help support the operations of the hospitals that are being turned over to new owners. The payments are advances on Medicaid funds that the state owes Steward.

Friday’s announcement came days after Steward said it has reached an agreement to sell its nationwide physicians network to a private equity firm.

In a statement released Monday, Steward said it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to sell its Stewardship Health business — which includes about 5,000 physicians in Massachusetts and nine other states treating about 400,000 patients — to Rural Healthcare Group, an affiliate of Kinderhook Industries LLC, a private equity firm.